Speaking exclusively to essendonfc.com.au in his weekly match preview, Matthew Knights today said there are two reasons for fans to be excited about Essendon’s NAB Cup semi-final against Collingwood on Friday night.

 

Not only will Essendon’s first two selections in the 2008 draft, Michael Hurley (pick no.5) and David Zaharakis (pick no.23), play their first senior game of football, but live-wire forward Alwyn Davey will play significantly more minutes after making his return from injury last week.

 

Read Matthew Knights match preview exclusive to the AFL’s only independently owned website, essendonfc.com.au below.

 

 

""We are going to have to up our game by about 15 – 20% this week if we are going to match Collingwood’s NAB Cup form. They have looked solid during the early competition starting a few weeks ago when they had a pretty convincing win over West Coast and then in the hype game against Richmond with the return of Ben Cousins. That match was pretty close early on but Collingwood were really strong in the second half and are one of the form teams in the NAB Cup and we will have to be at our best to match them,"" Knights said.

 

""Last week I was a little bit disappointed that we let the Brisbane Lions back in the game a couple of times when we were three goals up. We should not have let them back in the game and that was probably the biggest aspect I was disappointed in. However Brisbane are under a first-year coach and from all reports they have had a huge pre-season and they are very fit and hard and they are still a quality opposition even though they had four or five players out. At this time of the year you take a win under any circumstances and even though we didn’t play terrific football, it is still nice to be in the NAB Cup this week.

 

""Our overall approach throughout the course of the pre-season has been to best prepare ourselves for Round 1, but we are still out to win each and every game we play in. We give ourselves a decent chance of winning the game this weekend if we play to our strengths and we get some marks inside 50m which we didn’t get a lot of last week, we are a good chance.""

 

 

""Travis Cloke’s work rate and his marking ability was first class last week and he is obviously a real big time player for them who we are going to have to negate this week. Dane Swan is also a really underrated midfielder for Collingwood who runs through the lines really hard and has a lot more explosive speed than people give him credit for. We see these two players as really important players for Collingwood in order to win footy games and we will do what it takes to limit their influence,"" Knights said.

 

""With Dustin Fletcher out for Essendon this week, it is going to be a really big week for Patrick Ryder and Adam McPhee to step up as our most experienced defenders. I know that sounds a little bit weird with Paddy only being young himself but it is a great opportunity for these two players to run the backline and help set it up for us.

 

""I think Alwyn Davey will also be an important player for the Bombers this week and will be better for the run he had last week. He will play a lot more game time and we are hoping to get him up to about 60 – 80 minutes this week if we can.""

 

 

""Michael Hurley and David Zaharakis will make their debut this week. They are doing things hand in hand at the moment – they are two boys from the Northern suburbs who came to the club together and will be substitutes in their first game together. Possibly having each other in the side on Friday night will make them feel a little bit more comfortable and hopefully it sets a good foundation for their careers,"" Knights said.

 

""Michael has had a bit of an interrupted pre-season with his gall bladder operation but the great thing about having the substitute rule in the NAB Cup is you can play them for 30 – 40 minutes. That is what we will endeavour to do with Michael – we will play him for 40 minutes maximum like we did with Darcy Daniher last week against the Brisbane Lions.

 

""David has really earned his spot in the 26 this week. He has had a little bit more training and game time and played really well in the VFL against Geelong last week.

 

""Scott Gumbleton, Jay Neagle and Jobe Watson will all miss the game this week. They are all okay and did parts of our main session today but they were only feeling 85-90% and we didn’t want to take the risk. We have a philosophy that we are not going to take any risks with players who don’t feel 100% this pre-season because ultimately our focus is on Round 1.""

 

 

""Zoning has been a topic featuring heavily in the media this week. I think a lot of sides are using the NAB Cup to try new philosophies and new set-ups and zoning is obviously one of those. Zoning is not new to the game - a lot of clubs have set up 12 man zones for 10 – 15 years now at point kick ins but now they have turned it into 16 – 18 man zones and it has gone that extra yard,"" Knights said.

 

""Clubs are getting better at zoning and making it harder for the opposition player with the ball to get through. Hopefully it will sort itself out and I’m sure the home and away season will be very exciting once clubs work out how to get through the oppositions defence, making the standard of footy much better as a result.

 

""I don’t think zoning is bad for the game because I think evolution is something that has helped the game. This might actually make the game better even though at the moment it is like when flooding came in and people thought it was a blight on the game. Clubs quickly worked out a way to counter that and have realised it is not the way to win Premierships.

 

""Although zoning is right in front of us at the moment, I think as clubs get better at manipulating and counter-attacking through the zone, all this hullabaloo will disappear. The AFL has shown over history that this game will continue to evolve and get better and in my view it will.""

 

 

The Essendon squad is:

 

Ricky Dyson, Brent Stanton, Angus Monfries, Leroy Jetta, Jason Winderlich, David Zaharakis, Sam Lonergan, Courtenay Dempsey, Jay Nash, Matthew Lloyd, David Hille, Henry Slattery, Hayden Skipworth, Michael Hurley, David Myers, John Williams, Scott Lucas, Darcy Daniher, Alywn Davey, Patrick Ryder, Adam McPhee, Rhys Magin, Tyson Slattery, Jarrod Atkinson, Heath Hocking, Michael Quinn, Nathan Lovett-Murray, Bachar Houli, Tom Bellchambers.

 

The Collingwood squad is:

 

Leigh Brown, Nathan Brown, Dayne Beams, Martin Clarke, Alan Toovey, Travis Cloke, Chris Dawes, Brent Macaffer, Cameron Wood, Simon Prestigiacomo, Ben Reid, Dane Swan, Steele Sidebottom, Heath Shaw, Chris Bryan, Tarkyn Lockyer, Ben Johnson, Jaxson Barham, Ryan Cook, Leon Davis, John McCarthy, Alan Didak, Harry O’Brien, Jack Anthony, Scott Pendlebury, Shane O’Bree, Shannon Cox, Dale Thomas, Anthony Corrie.

 

Ins: Brent Stanton, Michael Hurley, David Zaharakis, Michael Quinn, Rhys Magin, Jarrod Atkinson

 

Outs: Dustin Fletcher, Scott Gumbleton, Jobe Watson, Jay Neagle, Andrew Lovett, Mark McVeigh